NCJ Number
138480
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 83 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1992) Pages: 125-138
Date Published
1992
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses four ways in which executions may be flawed and how occurrences of these flaws become "suddenly realized grievances" used to fuel the movement against capital punishment.
Abstract
Executions are flawed when they are technically botched, such that they produce a tortuous, cruel death rather than a quick death; when death-row inmates do not play their assigned role of undergoing the execution in a stoic, businesslike manner; when the prescribed solemnity of the death chamber is compromised; and when the exposure of irregularities in conviction and sentencing exists. When abolitionist organizations and the press make issues of these flaws, they become "suddenly realized grievances." Although flawed executions have existed throughout the history of capital punishment, and the potential for their occurrence is recognized, when a flaw occurs in the present, capital punishment abolitionists use it to fuel their efforts to eliminate capital punishment. An analysis of newspaper coverage suggests that flawed convictions, in which possibly innocent persons either suffer or narrowly escape execution, are especially potent threats to public support for capital punishment. The power of "suddenly realized grievances" to change public attitudes rests upon the abolitionists' effective and timely use of the media to publicize and interpret the meaning of the flaw. 2 tables and 55 references